[mikesee]

Share your unbelievable stories -- that actually happened.

Maybe 20 years ago I was in my LBS, shooting the breeze after buying a tire. The head sales guy started to wax rhapsodic about a road bike that was on display. "Carves like nothing else" he said. Normally sales guys will extoll many other virtues -- primarily weight -- of their high end models. Carving wasn't a sales pitch I'd heard before.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"It's the hubs -- no cartridge bearings, only loose balls" he replied.

I thought about that for a minute -- growing increasingly confused -- then asked him to elaborate.

His response confused me even more. "It's physically impossible to carve a bike that uses cartridge bearings in the hubs -- you have to have loose ball bearings or it doesn't work."

It was such a preposterous statement that I couldn't believe he'd said it in broad daylight. That's the kind of thing you say when you've had two or three two many, in the dark encircling a campfire, or out on a friend's back porch with a bunch of gearheads that can't wait to take the bait.

I waited for a hint of a smile to appear, telling me that he was pulling my leg. Nada -- he was serious.

So then I asked if he could explain the physics of his claim, even in layman's terms. "I don't have to" he said, "you just can't carve on cartridge bearing hubs". His body language, tone, and demeanor all made clear that he was dead serious.

With that I chuckled a bit, thanked him for the tire, and then rode home, laying out sweet, simple, cartridge-bearing carves all 5 blocks of the ride.

 

[rockcrusher]

Share your unbelievable stories -- that actually happened.

Maybe 20 years ago I was in my LBS, shooting the breeze after buying a tire. The head sales guy started to wax rhapsodic about a road bike that was on display. "Carves like nothing else" he said. Normally sales guys will extoll many other virtues -- primarily weight -- of their high end models. Carving wasn't a sales pitch I'd heard before.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"It's the hubs -- no cartridge bearings, only loose balls" he replied.

I thought about that for a minute -- growing increasingly confused -- then asked him to elaborate.

His response confused me even more. "It's physically impossible to carve a bike that uses cartridge bearings in the hubs -- you have to have loose ball bearings or it doesn't work."

It was such a preposterous statement that I couldn't believe he'd said it in broad daylight. That's the kind of thing you say when you've had two or three two many, in the dark encircling a campfire, or out on a friend's back porch with a bunch of gearheads that can't wait to take the bait.

I waited for a hint of a smile to appear, telling me that he was pulling my leg. Nada -- he was serious.

So then I asked if he could explain the physics of his claim, even in layman's terms. "I don't have to" he said, "you just can't carve on cartridge bearing hubs". His body language, tone, and demeanor all made clear that he was dead serious.

With that I chuckled a bit, thanked him for the tire, and then rode home, laying out sweet, simple, cartridge-bearing carves all 5 blocks of the ride.

I feel like bike shops, at the choice price point of $700-$1500, develop a lot of interesting whoppers to move bikes. I have no examples that i can recall but I do recall being in Performance Bikes physical bike shops and hearing a lot of hooey regarding the merits of base level bikes and the parts that were on them. Lots of "energy saving tires" and "super compliant terrain tracking suspension" stuff like that.

Also undercoating.

 

[834905]

I had a guy come into the shop I was working in, irate that we had knowingly sold him a bunk floor pump. He demanded a refund and swore that he would never shop with us again because we intentionally ripped him off.

I finally got him calmed down and had him explain his problem. He attached the pump, and would pump until the gauge said 100+ psi, but his tire never aired up.

I've had to show a lot of people how a presta valve works, but that was the first time I've ever been accused of ripping someone off because of it.

 

[Mike Aswell]

One time someone told me I couldn't feel suspension bob because I wasn't good enough at biking.
So I lowered my PSI in my shock by 50lbs and I could totally feel it.
Such a whopper...nice try, Picard.

 

[joeduda]

I've done a few gravel races on my Fat Bike and had a guy on a gravel (skinny tires) bike tell me I was cheating because of the momentum I could carry with those big tires.

 

[BicyclesOnMain]

I'm going to tell one: I believe it's true so I'll let you guys decide.
I'm hanging an old Klein frame on the wall and a longtime customer walks in. (he's an older guy that collects bikes and brazes his own frames. We call him Classic Mark) "Hey nice frame. I used to know Gary- he was part of the cycling club I was in during the late 70's/early 80's." I asked him more details about the story and then he tells me that Gary actually loaned him a frame to build up to ride on the velodrome in San Jose for a while... he casually mentions it was a frame Gary made while he was at MIT. Yes, THAT frame. Holy ****!

 

[andy f]

Came here for chocolate covered malt balls. Color me disappointed.

 

[phantoj]

Came here for chocolate covered malt balls. Color me disappointed.

YES for the malt balls ... NO for the quarter-pound flame-grilled burgers

 

[127.0.0.1]

+1 for malt balls
and +2 for the random 'dead' chewy malt ball, that random nasty peanut, or burnt potato chip

 

[phantoj]

With those malted milk balls, I would get the container that looks like a quart milk carton...

The first handfuls are amazing. By the time you get to the end, you're thinking, "why am I eating this when it is not healthy and is in fact making me feel sick?"

 

[Taroroot]

YES for the malt balls ... NO for the quarter-pound flame-grilled burgers

Cheeseburgers. The mayo and veggie bits in bigger burgers dont travel well on trail. The one time we did that, man was that an awesome trail lunch!

 

[Jayem]

Local foes mutz dealer: This bike rolls better than any other bike, FS or rigid, regardless of the tire size.

 

[Scott O]

If I have the option I always go to MacDonalds vs BK. And not that I don't like Whoppers, but I always get the old school chicken sandwich at BK. Not that new crispy chicken bs they're pushing these days. As a matter of fact, the crispy chicken sandwich at both Popeyes and at Chic a Fil are waaay overrated. There, I said it.

 

[bme107]

Few years ago I was riding a then new trail just put in along local electric utility right of way for the high tension wires. Not a destination trail but a connector to get you from trail system A to trail system B w/o riding the road. At this time few people know about it and fewer actually use it because it basically sucks for MTB. I round a blind switchback to some bench cut on a southern facing slope and have to lock up the brakes for an emergency stop. There is a young bikini clad lady sunning herself laying perpendicular to the trail on a towel.

More recently than the previous story, but also a few yeas back I was entering state land off a roadside trailhead access point. Basically shoulder parking along the road adjacent to a major creek that passes under the road. Some rapids, pools etc. A fishing spot for locals. Here there is an abandoned gravel access road for the water utility. Hikers, bikers, fishermen use it. Less than 100yds off the main road, and still within plain eyesight of road, I see a guy kneeling down in the weeds at edge of the creek. I'm 30 yds away at this point. The caucasion guy has either khaki pants or light tan waders on. Typical stuff, no big deal, nothing out of the ordinary. He's digging in his tackle box. Oops, he must have dropped something forward into the weeds and he's leaning over a little farther now to reach it. That's weird. 2 feet in the air and they are facing the other direction. Wait a minute, those aren't waders that's his bare ass and he's getting it on right now. At that point the angle of the stream bed and the gravel diverge slightly and I lose sight-line through the tall weeds. They were basically less than 10yds off the high volume trail enjoying each other's company.

 

[dir-T]

I was showing an intern how to gage stream flow with a Marsh McBirney and a nearby engineer asked, "so you run all the math here in the field, right?". I thought he was kidding. "Of course not, I do it in Excel back at the office. Why would I bother out here". He was all like, "in case the data seems weird so you can run your transect again".

F-k that noise. I'm on the clock.

 

[vikb]

My GF's 2 year old bike needed new brake pads. I was busy fixing other things on the bike so I sent her to the LBS to get pads and provided the old pads in their packaging just so there was no confusion. I figured it was an easy way to support the LBS and get her bike rolling faster than buying pads online. She calls me from the LBS and says they told her that the brake system was discontinued and no pads were available....she had to buy new brakes. I told her that was crazy talk and to ask them to check again. She calls me back and says the sales guy checked and got the same answer. I asked her if the sales guy was standing in front of her and if he was to shake her head in disbelief and walk away.

She came home. We had new pads ordered from Jenson in about 5mins for a lot less $$ that the LBS charged and delivered in 3 days.

I was tempted to go down there myself and set that guy straight, but then I remembered you can't beat stupid.

 

[deuxdiesel]

Years ago I was helping out a friend who owned a small LBS catch up on some back-logged repairs. In walks this fairly attractive woman who was supposed to be a rider of some repute that was having some bike issues. My friend drops everything to attend to her needs, even though she is whining about how long it will take, and that she is bored and blah blah blah. Two weeks later, I see her again on a group ride astride a brand new bike that was given to her by a sponsor, and she bitches constantly and loudly about how crappy the bike is. Nice. A few months go by and I stop in another shop to kill time, and there she is, this time selling bikes. My favorite part is that she tries to sell me a 140mm fully because "that is what older guys are riding". I'm 40 at the time. And I live in southern MI.

 

[WHALENARD]

My GF's 2 year old bike needed new brake pads. I was busy fixing other things on the bike so I sent her to the LBS to get pads and provided the old pads in their packaging just so there was no confusion. I figured it was an easy way to support the LBS and get her bike rolling faster than buying pads online. She calls me from the LBS and says they told her that the brake system was discontinued and no pads were available....she had to buy new brakes. I told her that was crazy talk and to ask them to check again. She calls me back and says the sales guy checked and got the same answer. I asked her if the sales guy was standing in front of her and if he was to shake her head in disbelief and walk away.

She came home. We had new pads ordered from Jenson in about 5mins for a lot less $$ that the LBS charged and delivered in 3 days.

I was tempted to go down there myself and set that guy straight, but then I remembered you can't beat stupid.

Geez. Don't know if that's stupid or trying to take advantage.

Sent from my Pixel 4a (5G) using Tapatalk

 

[vikb]

Geez. Don't know if that's stupid or trying to take advantage.

Being generous I want to believe he was just too stupid to process that 2 year old SRAM brakes would not suddenly run out of spare pad support from SRAM. As a scam new brakes would cost so much that even a bike un-savvy person like my GF would check with someone else before dropping $300-$400 on a new brake set and the scam would fail. But, who knows?

Sadly I have quite a few similar stories from times I've tried to support various LBS so in some ways I wasn't shocked it went wrong that way.

 

[milehi]

I once read an article by Bill Nye the Science quack stating you cant go fast on a mountain bike because of the aggressive tread on the tires.